Best of Mike #84

One of my very favorites.... a Juvenile Spotted Drumfish.

Named so because ... as an adult their markings will have changed to include spots.

And, by beating their abdominal muscles against their swim bladder.... they are able to make a sound very much like a drum.

In their juvenile stage they are small, wispy and graceful.... almost like a feather with eyes and gills.

Best Of Mike #82

One of our favorite sites to dive on Bonaire is Karpata.

One of the big attractions at that site is the double fluke anchors to be found there.

I have written about this site and the anchors before (Best of Mike #40) and probably will again.

After all we have been to Bonaire 9 times.... and have dived this site a total of 11 times.

It is believed that the anchors were placed there intentionally, for use by the sailing ships that would moor at Karpata to off-load supplies take on plantation goods for transport off the island.

There are actually 3 anchors laying on the reef here. Nine or ten years ago this one was easily found and the other two could be located with a little searching.

Not so today, the anchor you see here is well encrusted with coral, although still findable.

But the other two are lost to the ages, under the coral that has grown over the years.

Best of Mike #81

"If you know how to pretend, you can transcend both time and space".

Imagine a hot day, a very hot day but you have the shade of these trees to keep you cool.

Warm sand between your toes.

A breeze to push new air into your shade.

Each passing boat, makes small waves that lap against the shore. i

After lunch, you will swim out into the cool water for your next dive.

Or maybe after lunch you take a short nap, and then take your next dive.

Best of Mike #80

I think every photographer has a style or pattern of shooting that emerges in their work.

Some of this "style" is very much intended while some of it just seems to happen.

There are good trends and trends that might even be bad habits.

One of the things that I have noticed, as I take this walk down the memory lane of my scuba photography, is that I don't shoot many pixtures of people underwater.

As my equipment has evolved I have become more and more of a "macro photographer" and shoot even less of wide angle subjects.... like people.

But when we made this trip of Bonaire I was still using my Nikon "point and shoot" a camera that did a great job of both macro and wide angle.

So, here is Linda peering thru the propeller blades on the wreck of the Hilma Hooker.

Best of Mike #79

My friend and fellow diver, Randy,  tells me this is  Angel Hair Coral ... and that's a great name for it .

It is very hair like in it's texture and consistency. It definitely moves like hair as is sways back and forth in the currents. It even feels like hair.

I suspect it's really the extended polyps of some kind of coral.

But I can tell you for sure that it's both pretty and exotic ... and it makes me smile every time I see it.

Best of Mike #78

I am pretty sure that if you gave me a section of reef, the size of the average room, and told me I would be diving there for a week ... I'd be just fine.

Take your time, have a good look into every crack, under every overhang and into every hole ... you will be amazed what you find.

Like this is.... a Rough Fileclam.

The mantle is always a brilliant red or orange. But he tentacles will change color depending on the depth of the water.

In shallow water they will be red or orange too. But in deeper water they will be white, like you see here.

Best of Mike #77

Octopus are definitely one of those "mysterious creatures of the deep". So finding one of them on a dive is always exciting stuff.

They are not however, the monsters of the deep that movies have portrayed them as. Simply because they are never big enough to carry off an entire submarine.

All of the Octopus that I have seen are about the size of a plastic grocery bag. And seem to have about as much substance as that bag full of water when they ooze about the reef.

As you can see from this picture they are very adept at changing their coloring and their shape to match the area around them.

I am sure that I have swum over them hundreds if not thousands of time without even know they are there.

Octopus are nocturnal hunters, so during the day you will most often find them curled up in their hidey hole, as you see here.

One of the telltale signs for octopus is a littering of shells. They like to carry home the shellfish they find and then sit in the entrance of their den, cracking the shells and eating the goodies inside.

They are pretty territorial. So, if you find a den and don't make too much of a nuisance of yourself, it is possible to go back the same spot day after day.... for another encounter.

Best of Mike #76

Technically, this is not a great picture but I like it anyway.

It has a bit of an artistic feel to it ... and is pretty representative for what a Tarpon looks like when you see them underwater.

I took this picture on a dive to the Hilma Hooker.... a wreck that lays on it's side, up against the reef, in about 100ft of water.

The water was pretty stirred up that day so the visibility was poor. 

Tarpons are big, growing to be 5-8 ft and have very silvery scales. 

But they are a little stand-offish.... so they tend to be out their in the gloom, just like you see here.

They are predators and are comfortable in pretty much any kind of water ... fresh, salt, clear or brackish. Because of a unique swim bladder that they use for both a buoyancy and as a respiratory organ.

They are prized as a saltwater gamefish, not because of taste.... but because of their size and the fight they put up, including their great leaping ability.